Pete Fountain's life story has been wholly in harmony with Jazz, it has been part of his existence almost as far back as he could remember and in compiling this CD set we have taken a veritable feast of tracks from some of his LPs covering the period 1959-1962. This is music from excellent musicians playing songs that are as familiar as the seasons of the year, listen to tracks such as: "The Memphis Blues"; "Bayou Blues" and the seminal "St. Louis Blues". Pete Fountain also pays homage to the great clarinettists of their time with wonderful renditions of "Woodchoppers Ball", "Sometimes I'm Happy", "Begin the Beguine" and "Amapola" all of which were standards of Messrs Herman, Goodman, Shaw and Dorsey respectively. Alongside the aforementioned well-known standards Pete touches on the French influence in New Orleans and adds his own exciting new components, accompanied by an orchestra which is part Bourbon Street and part Champs Elysses. You feel yourself being transported to a café somewhere in Paris. As this compilation attests, you can take the musicians out of Bourbon Street but you can't take Bourbon Street out of man like, Pete Fountain.
